‘It’s not in our nature to give up without fight’

March 9, 2013

clarke

New Delhi, Mar 9: Visiting skipper Michael Clarke today vowed to make a strong comeback in the remaining two Tests, despite abject surrender in the first two games.

Trailing by 0-2, Clarke warned India of a possible turnaround in the last two matches in Mohali (Mar 14-18) and Delhi (Mar 22-26).

"It is not in our nature to give up without a fight. We have every chance of making a comeback and levelling the series 2-2. We feel if we win one we can win two," an optimistic Clarke said about his team's chances.

"We have to win the next two Tests to level the series and that is our main focus. But obviously it is going to be tough as India are playing really good cricket at the moment."

After losing the opening Test in Chennai by eight wickets, the visitors slumped to another morale-crushing defeat when India humiliated them by an innings and 35 runs in the second Test in Hyderabad.

And the Australian skipper was modest in admitting that India were by far the better side on display in the opening two Tests.

"No excuses for the defeats. We were outplayed in all facets of the game -- batting, bowling and fielding. The credit must go to India. But we need to improve as team," Clarke said during a function announcing Spartan Sports Goods' association with capital's Hyatt Regency hotel.

"We have learnt from our mistakes in the first two games, and I feel we still have plenty of time to correct our flaws before the next game," he insisted.

Clarke admitted that the touring Australia squad lacks experience when it comes to playing in tough Indian conditions.

"Only four players of the current team has experience of playing Test matches in India," he said.

"The conditions are tough and demading in India. The culture, food, pitches, weather everyhting is different, but I guess that is the beauty of cricket.

"It is lot easier to play in your own backyard but that's what international cricket is all about," Clarke added.

Clarke refused to poke his nose into Virender Sehwag's axing from the Indian squad for the remaining Tests, but said the veteran opener has a lot of cricket still left in him to make a comeback into the national side.

"To be honest, I am not too much focussed on the Indian team. That's upto the Indian selectors and the team management," he said when asked about Sehwag.

"Virender has been a fantastic player for India in all three formats of the game. And I am confident, that he will be back.

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Agencies
January 16,2020

New Delhi, Jan 16: Mahendra Singh Dhoni was on Thursday dropped from the BCCI's list of centrally contracted players, raising fresh doubts on the future of the former India captain who has not played since the World Cup semifinal loss to New Zealand last year.

The BCCI announced the central contracts for the period of October 2019 to September 2020. Dhoni was in the A category, which fetches a player Rs 5 crore, until last year.

Skipper Virat Kohli, his deputy Rohit Sharma and top pacer Jasprit Bumrah were retained in the highest A+ bracket of Rs 7 crore.

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News Network
January 28,2020

Gibraltar, Jan 28: Young Indian Grand Master R Praggnanandhaa pulled off a huge upset, beating former world champion Veselin Topalov in the sixth round of the 18th Gibraltar chess festival to record his fifth straight win here.

The 14-year-old Chennai lad needed just 33 moves to put it across the Bulgarian. He had started with a loss against compatriot P V Nandhidhaa but since then he has been on a winning spree.

Praggnanandhaa, who recently won the world under-18 title, said: "It was very tough to prepare against him."

He is in second spot on five points with six other players and will take on Chinese GM Wang Hao in the seventh round.

Seventeen-year-old Russian GM Andrey Esipenko jumped to sole lead with 5.5 points with a win over Georgia's Ivan Cheparinov

The Russian player would be unpaired in the seventh round as he decided to take a bye.

A bunch of players including Indians — B Adhiban, K Sasikiran, Shardul Gagare, Karthikeyan Murali, SL Narayanan — are in joint third place with 4.5 points.

Adhiban beat Gabriel Flom, while D Gukesh, the world's second youngest Grand Master ever, defeated Martin Percivaldi to move to four points.

Also winning were Karthikeyan Murali against Qi B Chen and Gagare over France's Maxime Lagarde.

Top-seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's moderate run continued as he was held to a draw by GM Aryan Chopra.

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Agencies
March 3,2020

Mumbai, Mar 3: India on Tuesday retained their number one spot and captain Virat Kohli remained static at second in the ICC rankings despite a dismal Test series against New Zealand.

India have 116 rating points, six more than New Zealand with third-placed Australia accumulating 108 points. The 0-2 result against New Zealand was India's first series loss in the World Test Championship.

Kohli remains in second position in the batting rankings despite a forgettable Test series in which he made 38 runs in four innings, the ICC said in a statement.

New Zealand opener Tom Blundell and his Indian counterpart Prithvi Shaw and debutant paceman Kyle Jamieson were among the biggest movers in the rankings, released on Tuesday.

Blundell had a successful series against India, scoring 117 runs in four innings, with one half-century, which put him among the top two run-scorers in the series.

The performance meant he was rewarded with a jump of 27 places to No. 46. Shaw, who returned for his first series since his Test debut against West Indies in 2018, and made a punchy 54 in the first innings of the Christchurch Test, rose 17 places to No.76.

Australia's Steve Smith retained his top spot, holding a 25-point advantage over Kohli. Smith's apprentice Marnus Labuschagne jumped one spot to round off the top three, taking the place of New Zealand captain Kane Williamson.

England all-rounder Ben Stokes and India opener Mayank Agarwal moved a spot each and swapped places to break into and fall out of the top 10 respectively.

Among bowlers, Tim Southee's Player of the Series winning performance against India took him into the top five, with a jump of two places to No.4, while Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult returned to the top 10, gaining four places each to occupy the seventh and ninth positions respectively.

But the biggest gainer was Jamieson, who rose from No. 80 to 43.

There was only one change in the top ten among all-rounders, with Southee dropping a spot to No.10 and team-mate Neil Wagner falling out of the top 10 with a drop of four spots.

As with the bowling rankings, Jamieson, who frustrated India with handy lower order runs, gained big on the all-rounders' table, rising 26 places to No. 22.

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